The Pacers came back to Miami for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals and were outplayed and overmatched in a contest that was decided before the first half ended.

The Heat hammered the Pacers 117-92 and advanced to the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive time, becoming just the third franchise in NBA history to do that and the first team to accomplish that feat since the 1984-87 Boston Celtics, teams for which Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird played.

The Heat will play the winner of the Oklahoma City Thunder-San Antonio Spurs series, starting with Game 1 Thursday in the home of the Western Conference champion. Miami is also trying to win its third consecutive championship.

Miami improved to 10-0 in closeout games at home since LeBron James and Chris Bosh joined Dwyane Wade in Miami.

Pacers All-Star Paul George said earlier Friday that Indiana couldn't "have a game where we're down 15 at any point. … We can't put ourselves in a hole in this arena."

The Pacers barely made it out of the first quarter without that happening. Indiana took a 9-2 lead and then disintegrated. Miami went on a 26-4 run and led 28-13 with 11:10 left in the second quarter.

It got worse from there. The Heat led 60-34 at halftime and 86-49 with 3:39 left in the third quarter. It was a stretch of basketball that generated sympathy for Pacers coach Frank Vogel and his team.

Game 4 in Miami: Heat 102, Pacers 90 -- Indiana forward David West (21) scrambles for a loose ball against Miami forward Rashard Lewis (9) and LeBron James (6) during the second half. (Photo: Robert Mayer, USA TODAY Sports)

Game 3 in Miami: Heat 99, Pacers 87 -- The Miami bench and fans rise to their feet as Ray Allen (34) knocks down a clutch three-pointer during the Heat's decisive late run. (Photo: Robert Mayer, USA TODAY Sports)

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James, who had to deal with Lance Stephenson's antics during the series, had 25 points, six assists and four rebounds, and Bosh added 25 points and eight rebounds.

Bosh had quite a turnaround in this series. In the final four games of last season's series against the Pacers and the first three games of this series, Bosh failed to score in double figures. But he scored at least 20 in the final three games this season.

Wade, who had 13 points, is not the only Heat player who found the fountain of youth. Rashard Lewis, who entered the starting lineup in Game 4, followed up his up his 18-point performance in Game 5 with 13 points in Game 6.

Chris Andersen returned after missing the past two games and had nine points and 10 rebounds off the bench.

Again, the Pacers struggled with Miami's defensive pressure and were unable — incapable, too — of slowing Miami's dangerous offense, which sh​ot 57.9% from the field.

It was a Heat clinic, exposing the Pacers as a team not talented or mentally tough enough to win an Eastern Conference championship.

"I know we had a very angry group yesterday when we met for practice, very focused group today at shoot-around," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "I knew at least our guys would bring a very competitive spirit to the game. You just don't know. You don't know when these type of games are going to happen."

Last season, they were the lovable, rising Pacers, a team capable of threatening Miami's Eastern Conference dominance. This season, they were a confounding team that suffered from a second-half meltdown after owning the best record in the East at the All-Star break.

Indiana fought hard all season — through plenty of on-court and off-court angst — to gain home-court advantage and believed it could beat Miami in Game 7 at home.

That game never arrived. The Heat made sure of that in a lopsided affair that had hints of Game 7 between the Heat and Pacers in last year's Eastern Conference finals. The Heat won that game 99-76, and George was just 2-for-9 with seven points.

"It's bitterly disappointing to fall short of our goals, and it's bitterly disappointing to lose to this team three years in a row," Vogel said. "But we're competing against the Michael Jordan of our era, the Chicago Bulls of our era, and you have to tip your hats to them for the way they played this whole series.

"You just have to go into the offseason with the mindset that we're going to reload, and we have a core, a system, a culture that's going to give us a chance every year. We've got to make whatever adjustments we have to make to come back and be here again next year."

The Pacers didn't need another 37-point performance from George, but they needed more than he delivered. George missed the six shots he took in the first half and had just one point at halftime.

The loss isn't all on George. He had little help. Center Roy Hibbert had eight points but made just one field goal, guard George Hill had nine points and Indiana's bench had just two points through three quarters. The Pacers shot 46.4% for the game but only 37.1% in the first half.

Even though Bird told USA TODAY Sports that he did not like Stephenson blowing in James' ear in Game 5, Stephenson still tugged on Superman's cape. Stephenson's antics didn't work on James.

But Stephenson wasn't the problem. Besides David West (16 points), Stephenson (11 points) and George, who scored 28 points in the second half when it didn't matter, the Pacers were out of their league.